Eddy Elfenbein submits:
One of the fun parts about looking for profitable stocks is that you come across industries that you never knew existed. For example, there are two publicly traded companies— GeoEye (GEOY) and DigitalGlobe (DGI)—that operate in the field of providing satellite images for customers. Think Google (GOOG) Earth.
This is an appealing business because it has many applications from oil and gas to disaster rescue and government intelligence. What strikes me is that this could be a great business model as the entry costs are high (getting a satellite up there) and the variables costs are low (click!).
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Trader Mark submits:
The non stop breakouts continue… Deere (DE) is the latest to go as HAL9000 finally rushes in after a break over the all important $60 level. One day that gap at $53s is certain to fill but at the current pace of non stop rally perhaps we’re talking the crash of 2014.
I am very torn on whether to participate on this type of breakout; I can buy with a stop loss below $60 which is where the breakout came from. This is the same trade I do on indexes each time they break to a new level. I know this is what HAL9000 and its peers in the human world are doing en masse. So it will work. Until it doesn’t. But will every obvious trade just continue to work ad nauseum? Sort of living in an Alice in Wonderland market…
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Phil Davis submits:
Here’s a fun chart to consider:
This is the S&P 500 Bullish Percent Index, which is a measure of the percent of stocks in the index that are currently trading with Point and Figure buy signals. Bullish Percent Levels higher than 70% are considered overbought and below 30% is considered oversold. We hit a high of 88 in September of last year and haven’t been below 50 since last March’s crash. Notice a move down to just 64 cost the S&P close to 10% in February so, believe me – you don’t even want to think about what will happen if we hit 30!
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Jeffrey Saut submits:
Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut’s latest essay (published Monday, March 22nd):
…[W]ith the passage of (the healthcare) bill the government becomes even a larger component of the economy as it offers us more “free corn.” Yet Milton Friedman once stated, “There are no free lunches,” and there will most certainly be a price to pay for the policies of the past year. As the must read folks at the GaveKal organization write (as somewhat paraphrased by me):
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Veronique Adam submits:
Stock price: $46.9
Conclusion: Monday’s weakness offers a good entry point. We upgrade our valuation range to $54-$55 per share, based on our 2010 and 2011 estimates. We think that Tiffany (TIF) is well positioned to achieve double digit growth in EPS, based on its products assortment and its network expansion combined with store productivity improvement.
2009 results: Sales down 5% to $2.71bn (-5% organic). Adjusted net earnings down 15% to $255m (EPS $2.04). Guidance 2010: 11% increase in sales and net earnings of $2.45-$2.50 per share.
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David Brown submits:
Despite the global gloom that continues to cause significant concern about economic recovery virtually everywhere, the market pushed right through the resistance wall last week, threatened to give it back on Friday and Monday morning, but then continued forging ahead Monday.
It is difficult to grasp the resilience of the U.S. equity markets in light of our domestic crises – the staggering debt, unemployment hanging tight at close to 10 percent, the health care struggle, which may or may not be resolved by the bill that just passed Congress. There seems to be an implicit assumption by the marketplace that none of these looming dark clouds will actually threaten the ability of corporate America to shine on with at least modest profits.
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Wall Street Cheat Sheet submits:
Upscale home-products retailer Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM) beat Wall St. estimates Monday before the bell, indicating yet again that recent better-than-expected retail sales data may be the real deal, and that the U.S. consumer may finally be turning the corner. The company, which also operates the Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and West Elm, reported fiscal Q1 EPS of $0.86/shares on $1.09 billion in revenue vs. profits of $0.12/share on $1 billion in revenue for the same quarter last year.
You’d be right to think that any comparison to Q1 last year would be sure to turn out favorable for a retailer of pricey home furnishings, but when you consider that analysts had WSM pegged at EPS of just $0.73, one must admit that they’re moving inventory a lot faster than people thought they could. And if what they’re moving is $99 cutting boards (on sale!), well then we might just have a situation on our hands, and a good one at that.
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Sol Palha submits:
The steeper the mountain the harder the climb the better the view from the finishing line
-Anonymous
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Wall Street Cheat Sheet submits:
On Sunday evening, the historic $938 billion dollar health care reform bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, health insurers will receive 32 million new taxpayer-subsidized customers by 2019 — covering 95 percent of all Americans.
In the simplest of words, the health care reform bill has become a Cash for Clunkers program for HMOs.
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Toby Shute submits:
The Marcellus continues to mesmerize aspiring shale players. We’ve seen Statoil team up with Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK), Williams (NYSE: WMB) join up with Rex Energy, and Mitsui & Co. partner with Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC). Even ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) has set up stakes in the Appalachian natural gas play.
Supporting my thesis that Asia’s shale gas appetite is growing, India’s Reliance Industries was said to be in talks with Atlas Energy (Nasdaq: ATLS) about a billion-dollar Marcellus joint venture. We’ll have more to say on that one once a deal actually materializes. For now, CONSOL Energy (NYSE: CNX) remains in the spotlight.
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Kurt Brouwer submits:
Jim Rogers, the ubiquitous financial pundit, short seller, author and former hedge fund manager, covered lots of ground in an interview with CNBC. He described two tiny bubbles — I’m kidding on the tiny part — one in Chinese real estate and the other in U.S. Treasury bonds. He also touted commodities and gold, which he thinks is on the way to $2,000 an ounce. He slammed Greece and suggested bankruptcy was the right strategy and he implied the British should just go pound sand. Finally, he predicted the demise of the euro. Here are some excerpts [emphasis added]:
Jim Rogers Sizes Up Two Global Bubbles (CNBC, Mar. 17, 2010, Antonia Oprita)
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Brian Rezny submits:
We know China as an emerging economy. That was not always so. China was once a commercial center, once the largest nation on earth. While the U.S. dominated the past century, if history repeats itself, China may own the next century.
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Phil Davis submits:
Here’s Pharmboy’s latest in his Pharmaceutical/Biotech stock review.
I thought a good summary of where the Pharmaceutical company has been, and where it is going in the next few years was in order. I focused on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Eli Lilly (LLY), Merck (MRK), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and ‘biotechs’ Genzyme (GENZ), Gilead Sciences (GILD), and others in the past 9 months. But a summary of the industry will serve PSW members well for the future year or so. The market is at a crossroad and I am unsure of which direction the market will go. As was noted on Friday on the laggers/leaders of the past month or so, Telecom and Healthcare were at the bottom of the pile.
For the review of Pharma, generic companies are excluded from all data (Merck KGaA (MKGAY.PK), Mylan (MYL), Teva (TEVA) and Watson (WPI).
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YCHARTS.com submits:
eBay (EBAY) is up close to 100% over the past 10 years. Solid results for sure, but if you bought after 2003 it has a been a tough ride. Recently, eBay is showing signs of strength since the March lows. PayPal and the large global payment opportunity are reasons to consider eBay right now.
eBay’s market capitalization is $35 billion with revenues approaching $9 billion for the last 12 months. Below we drill into the key growth, profitability and valuation metrics below and access the attractiveness of the company.
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Investing, Long Term Investment, stock market | admin March 23, 2010 | 
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